An Alternative Image

EMDAD RAHMAN
A little while back there was much controversy surrounding the filming of Monica Ali’s book Brick Lane followed by various debates that took place between journalists, academics and book critics.

I am neither a mainstream journalist nor a mainstream book critic but I am a community worker who has lived in the community depicted within the pages of Brick Lane for thirty years. I have read Monica Ali’s book entitled "Brick Lane" and completing it required a lot of determination. I also decided to read Zadie Smith’s "White Teeth", which also centres around a Bangladeshi family. Mainstream British publishers published both authors and so I was very pleased when I heard that local Tower Hamlets author, Rabina Khan had been published by independent publisher Fore-Word Press.

Rabina’s book "Ayesha’s Rainbow" was recently launched at Borders, Oxford Street in an event hosted by broadcast journalist Rageh Omaar. It was heartening and refreshing to see that Khan’s Bangladeshi female characters were not stereotypically married to men twenty years their senior as is the case in White Teeth and Brick Lane.

An important point to consider is why local people relate more to Rabina’s book "Ayesha’s Rainbow." It is quite apparent that Rabina Khan possesses real life knowledge and awareness of the dynamics of both the host and migrant communities of Tower Hamlets. Perhaps because she harkens directly from the community, rather than just using it as a convenient backdrop to reinforce existing stereotypes of East End Bengali’s and their English counterparts. I opposed the motley crew who demonstrated feverishly against Ruby Films and the film production of Brick Lane, arguing that their purposes were very unlikely to be fulfilled through their lack of dialogue and method of protest.

The question that needs to be pondered - in light of the quite recent controversy surrounding the filming of Monica Ali’s "Brick Lane" and the rejection of Ali’s depiction of the Bengali’s by that community – is; ‘do authors portray a more realistic portrait of their subject, if they are directly in touch with the community they portray?’

It was interesting to note, that the reviewers for Rabina’s book had tended to be predominantly black, Asian or someone who had direct links and experiences of living in the East End; Rageh Omaar, Anila Baig from The Sun and Roberta Taylor from The Bill (and best-selling author of "Too Many Mothers; Memoir of an East End Childhood").

Having spoken to Rabina’s publisher ‘Malik Al Nasir’ of Fore-Word Press, I became aware of the fact that the Guardian’s very own Simon Hattenstone had read the book and described it thus; "Raw, heartfelt and moving. Ayesha is an innocent, wise beyond her years". As the author of "Steve & Me", (Time Warner) a racially charged book about the relations between the black and white communities in London, in reference to Stephen Lawrence, I think it is important to hear the views of Simon Hattenstone more fully, as he is both a British writer for the Guardian and renowned for his integrity, often presenting an alternative image of black – white relations, but from a British perspective. In the case of Tower hamlets Asian community, it would be a useful contrast to the stereotypical image of what the East End is all about rather than a single defined image, set by one controversial book – "Brick Lane".

I would also like to refer to authenticity of research even in a work of fiction. Does buying mangos in Brick Lane elevate Monica Ali’s research over the likes of Rabina Khan?

Rabina Khan comes from a working class background, her father originally worked in the Chatham Docks and she came to live in Tower Hamlets in 1991 at the age of 19, where she took employment with Tower Hamlets council. The bedrock of her book revolves around her experiences of working on the Isle of Dogs. Rabina is from Sylhet, the eldest in a family of five and has experienced varying degrees of racism throughout her life.

Our Monica comes from a nice middle class background with a British mother and non-Sylheti father. She studied at Cambridge and by UK standards, has had a pretty good life. She has worked in the publishing arena, having contacts that have no doubt helped her career no end? Margaret Foster and Natasha Walters were two of Ali’s reviewers and I wonder the extent of each of these British middle class women understanding of the Bangladeshi and all the communities living in Tower Hamlets; I wonder if either of them have ever paid a visit to Tower Hamlets.

In some ways, Rabina Khan has been much more daring than Monica Ali. In that her subject matter is reminiscent of the award winning film CRASH (Sandra Bullock) that was turned down by most Hollywood studios because it tackled racism by playing out all the stereotypes. Khan tackles this in a similar fashion making you feel very uncomfortable whether you are black, white, Asian or ‘other’ as the say. And although we do get to read the Lion Hearts' racist views in Brick Lane, this organisation always remains allusive. In Rabina’s book - Ayesha’s Rainbow, it is ‘SWAT’ (Superior White Active Threat), the militant wing of the NWBP or ‘Nation for White British People’, who trash Brick Lane, rather than Ali’s Bangladeshi group ‘the Bengal Tigers’ do in her novel Brick Lane.

Monica Ali focuses on one woman Nazneen and her family and her life, which apparently sets the scene for the reader in Tower Hamlets. Nazneen comes over from Bangladesh and lives a life in a tower block with her over domineering husband Chanu. Does this kind of imagery set a general rule that most Bangladeshi husbands lock their wives in a tower block and that’s it? Many of the Bangladeshi women who have come over to the UK have managed very successfully to integrate into the wider society through education and economic development, contrary to this stereotypical depiction in Ali’s book.

In contrast Rabina Khan focuses on two families: one of Bangladeshi origins, and the other a British family from the old East End. Rabina’s novel starts off with the Ali family moving in next door to the elderly Mrs Peters; the flat that belonged to Mrs Peters' recently departed friend Vera. Mrs Peters is therefore feeling lonelier than ever, she cannot bring herself to say hello to her new neighbours, as she has never been on friendly terms with anyone who wasn’t white. The Ali’s, have their own fears of Mrs Peters. Mr Ali secretly fears that Mrs Peters will make the usual complaints to the Council about noise and cooking smells affecting her health. But as the novel progresses the characters begin to break down their stereotypical prejudices, often by playing them out and community cohesion is painstakingly built through a mixture of necessity and tragedy, but with a glimmer of hope for both sides, engendered in the dreams of a little Asian girl Ayesha.

Brick Lane is the more obviously 'literary' of the two novels but then who’s is the more authentic?

Rabina Khan runs a project called Monsoon Press in Tower Hamlets and also works with Rich Mix Newsroom as a consultant. She is in the process of working with secondary schools to develop literary projects in order to engage young people further into various literary and creative fields. Rabina Khan was awarded a research grant from the Arts Council for her second book "Nari; A Story of A Woman" based around a young woman’s experiences during and after the Liberation War of 1971 in Bangladesh. A book that was inspired by a survivor of 1971 whom Khan met on a plane journey to Bangladesh.

Monica Ali has just recently launched her second book Alentejo Blue that was inspired by her stay in her second home in Portugal and it’s is great to see Ali taking on a different subject matter this time. I hope her Portuguese hosts react better to that novel, than her Bengali hosts did to Brick lane?